Rio Ferdinand's Book Hints at Attitude Problems Under Moyes at Manchester United

Of all the players who would break ranks and seriously criticise the David Moyes reign at Manchester United, Rio Ferdinand was always likely to be first.

Released in the summer and seemingly unhappy that he didn't have the chance to say goodbye to the Old Trafford fans, Ferdinand was the most likely candidate to lift the lid on Moyes' time at United, as he has done in his book, the rather depressingly titled '#2Sides', serialised in The Sun this week.

Ferdinand seems to confirm many of the things that looked apparent from the outside, namely confused tactics that produced listless and aimless performances from United under Moyes.

The description of their preparation for that Bayern game, which United lost 3-1, is particularly instructive, via The Sun:

"

Before the game, Moyes said that depending how Bayern played, we could use three formations. He’d let the lads know which one when the game got underway. Danny Welbeck was going to play on the right... or it could be on the left... or behind.

 Shinji Kagawa was definitely going to play behind, or the left... We lost and 13 days later Moyes was sacked...

"

However, there is a temptation to think that Ferdinand's complaints at least partly stem from personal gripes about his treatment at the hands of Moyes.

Ferdinand, for example, complains about being dropped for the Champions League trip to Bayern Munich in public, but while the circumstances of Moyes passing on the news (at a public training session) might not have been ideal, the manager's reasons (he wanted more pace in defence) were valid.

Anyone who has watched Ferdinand over the past couple of years will know that his speed, once such a huge part of what made him one of the best, if not the best defender in the world, had disappeared, so Moyes dropping the defender to face a team featuring Franck Ribery and Mario Gotze is not in the least bit unreasonable.


However, Ferdinand's words also suggest that the attitude of the United players also had plenty to do with the team's dreadful overall performance last season. There seems to be a theme of the players reacting negatively to change, no matter how small.


Ferdinand speaks of Moyes taking the squad on a communal 10-minute walk before games, something that nobody in the squad had done before, and "no one enjoyed." Ferdinand says, again per The Sun: 


"

I know some people will think we’re being prima donnas but a lot of what we do in a team environment is a question of habit and feeling comfortable. When lots of little things start changing it’s destabilising. It doesn’t matter if you are a footballer or working behind a machine in a factory. 


"

Ferdinand also complains about five-a-side games being replaced by two-touch matches and even being denied their traditional Friday evening pre-match meal of chips. Even though Ferdinand admits as much, these seem to be minor gripes that should not affect the side that deeply.


Of course, this is perhaps not entirely surprising, given the methods had worked for Sir Alex Ferguson for so long, and there would perhaps naturally be an aversion to changing anything that Ferguson did. His way was best, and for some of the squad, it was the only way they had known for some years.


However, it doesn't say much for the squad's professionalism that they couldn't adapt to such minor alterations and that it affected their morale as significantly as it appears from Ferdinand's book.


The quality of players on the pitch could be cited as a bigger reason for United's failure under Moyes than the manager, but from these extracts from Ferdinand's book, it seems their attitude was a big hindrance as well.